Judge blood slurs 'disgraceful'

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New South Wales Supreme Court judge Jeff Shaw was not involved
with the disappearance of his official blood sample, the head of
the NSW Bar Association said today.

A blood sample was taken at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on
October 13, after the judge's car hit a parked vehicle near his
Birchgrove home.

Justice Shaw was given half the sample while the other half was
placed in a secure police box for transport to the traffic services
branch.

But the sample went missing before police could analyse it.

Police are now investigating the disappearance.

Bar Association president Ian Harrison, SC, said any suggestion
that the judge was directly or indirectly involved in the
disappearance of sample was "disgraceful".

"It's absolutely essential at the start to make it clear that
the last person in the world who would have wanted this vial of
blood to go missing would be Justice Shaw himself," Mr Harrison
told ABC radio.

"If it went missing, it could not have had anything to do with
the judge."

Mr Harrison added that any refusal by Justice Shaw to hand over
his own blood sample would not render the judge's position on the
Supreme Court bench untenable.

"Clearly he is in a difficult position being at the heart of the
administration of justice, but he's nonetheless a citizen of this
state who can take comfort in the legal rights that all have," he
said.

"It would obviously suit everybody if he were to hand it over
and satisfy those speculating about what it might reveal once and
for all.

"But I don't think his position as a judge is untenable ... he
can maintain his silence or maintain the sample.

"He has no greater legal or moral obligation than anybody in his
position."